NANS Condemns Planned Scrapping of NECO, UTME

National Association of Nigerian Students has condemned the planned scrapping of the National Examination Council and the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination by the Federal Government.

The students’ body, in a statement signed by its President, Prince Miaphen, and made available to Saturday PUNCH in Jos, said such actions were inimical to the development of education in the country.

The statement read, “The attention of the national leadership of NANS has been drawn to a recent pronouncement by the government to cancel JAMB and NECO.

“We condemn in totality any attempt to scrap NECO, as it is the only indigenous examination body for ordinary level pupils in the country.

“NECO should rather be reformed and empowered to carry out its obligation as the only indigenous examination body in the country rather than being scrapped.

“It should be noted that other countries have up to five different examination bodies; it is not too much for Nigeria to have at least two of such bodies for O’ level.”

The students accused the West African Examination Council of not representing the interest of Nigerian students enough at that level because its curriculum does not reflect the Nigerian system and this usually leads to mass failure of Nigerian students in WAEC-conducted examinations.

They also want to know what the Federal Government will do with the staff of both organisations.

NANS also wants UTME to be restructured and strengthened to be the sole regulatory body for entrance examinations into higher institutions in the country.

“The post-UME examination should be scrapped because it is more or less a duplication of responsibility.

“Many Nigerian youths have been facing a lot of setbacks because after passing UTME, they fail post-UME after spending so much money,” the students said.